AMD no longer has to pay for its x86 license

FUD Zilla reports that under the new cross-license agreement between AMD and Intel, AMD no longer has to pay royalties to Intel for manufacturing x86 processors:

According to that agreement Intel and AMD obtain patent rights from a new patent cross-license with a capture period that is now been extended to five years.

The licenses are now royalty free for both parties which means that AMD won’t have to pay anything for its most important X86 license. So, AMD and Globalfoundries have the right to freely make X86 devices.

Since this is a two way street, AMD will also give some patents to Intel and make the competition less exciting. Nehalem looks much like AMD’s Barcelona and AMD will concentrate on catching up with Intel and bringing innovations that should help the company in 2011 to introduce some cool products such as Fusion as well as its Bulldozer savior core.